Enshrinement night for the Hall of Fame is an opportunity for the basketball community to acknowledge what the class of inductees mean to the sport, but in John Calipari’s case, the red carpet was testament enough.

Calipari once referred to the players on his loaded roster as platoons, one group coming in support of the other, but as he headed into the Hall of Fame, the platoons were in support of Coach Cal.

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“We’re happy for him. It’s well deserved and we’re all here to support him,” Marcus Camby said.

Camby, from Calipari’s UMass days, was one of the 70 former players he said would attend, going all the way up to this year’s No. 1 draft pick, Karl Anthony Towns, and all of this year’s team.

“You know Coach Cal has done so many things for us. He’s a 'players first' coach. It’s good to see all of the players here, giving back to him. He deserves it all,” Devin Booker said.

“It means a lot to come out here to support Coach Cal. It’s just a great thing to be out here. Kentucky was a great place, made me a better player, better person. It’s just special to be here tonight,” Nerlens Noel said.

The list includes all stars like John Wall, and they all came to pay back the man who helped them along the way.

“He’s always talked about being a 'players first' coach. The true testament to that is how those players respond, how they react. To see guys going back to Marcus Camby to the current team and everybody in between, it speaks volumes. It speaks volumes,” Orlando Antigua said.

Earlier Friday night, Calipari got a group of those former players together privately at the actual Hall of Fame. He tweeted a picture of the large crowed, with the hashtag "players first."

Eleven new members entered the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame Friday night, including Kentucky coach John Calipari.

Before tonight’s induction in Springfield, Calipari went back to the place where his head coaching career began, touring the UMass facilities in Amherst.

Calipari has been to the Hall of Fame before, but sitting on stage, waiting for his turn to speak, he couldn’t help but look at it a bit differently.

“I was looking at the founders of the game, from Naismith to the guys who created this game that we play,” Calipari said.

His first opportunity as a head coach, at UMass, was only about a half hour from the hall itself, but he says back then he never dreamed he’d become a part of it.

“I was just asked in the other room, ‘Did you ever think about this?’ I said ‘I was 29 and trying to survive and keep my job. I wasn’t thinking about the Hall of Fame,’” Calipari said.

Since then, Calipari has been named the Naismith college coach of the year three times, including this season.

He still speaks, glowingly, about his teams at UMass and Memphis, but his career went to a new level at Kentucky -- including a national championship in 2012.

The job brought out the best in him, bringing him back to Springfield and to Symphony Hall.

“Kentucky is like coaching at Carnegie Hall. You’re on the biggest of big stages. For the conductor, it's pretty good stuff. If you can play, you make it big in that place, you’re big,” Calipari said.

Calipari actually offered to pay the ticket price, which starts around $100, for any of his former players who want to attend the enshrinement.